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Celebrity endorsements: a literature review and research agenda
The use of celebrity endorsement in environmental conservation interventions aiming to influence human behavior has increased in recent decades. Although good practice in designing, implementing, and evaluating behavioral interventions is outlined in recent publications, guidance on developing conservation interventions with celebrity endorsement remains limited. To fill this gap, we devised a guide for decision‐making relating to celebrity‐endorsed behavioral interventions based on the behavioral, project design, and celebrity endorsement literatures. The guide advises conducting research to understand the behavior system in question; defining endorser selection models and celebrities based on the research; developing an endorsement strategy with the appropriate communication channels; testing the celebrity, channels, and strategy with the target audience and making adjustments as needed; and, finally, evaluating the intervention after implementation. We applied this strategy to a case study, the aim of which was to design a celebrity‐endorsed intervention to reduce consumption of wild meat in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Following our guide, we found that employing evidence‐based decision‐making substantially enhanced our ability to understand the complexity and potential cost associated with using celebrity endorsements in behavioral interventions.
Due to high competition in the fashion sector, apparel companies employ various strategies to articulate distinct marketing approaches aimed at attracting more valuable customers and increasing purchase intention among them. The current study investigates the influence of endorser credibility and brand credibility on consumer purchase intention in native apparel company brands in Pakistan. This paper also scrutinizes the mediating role of attitudes towards brand credibility and attitudes towards the brand. The sample size is 353, and data was gathered through a structured survey. For data analysis, structural equation modeling was utilized to identify the relationships among variables. The findings of this study indicate that endogenous variables (endorser credibility and brand credibility) have a significant and positive influence on the exogenous variable (consumer purchase intention). Additionally, endorser credibility and brand credibility are positively related to the mediators, namely attitudes towards brand credibility and attitudes towards the brand. The bootstrapping procedure reveals that both mediators have a favorable and significant effect on endorser credibility and brand credibility in altering consumer purchase intention. The results of the study are discussed, and suggestions for the targeted sector are provided. Such findings are particularly expected to be beneficial for the sector under study and for other sectors of the economy in general.
Hallyu, the global cultural phenomenon that is also known as the Korean Wave affects its fans in terms of both their openness to Korean culture and their purchase intentions. Despite this, research into the psychological mechanism behind it is lacking. The aim of this study is to discover a) the relationship between Hallyu culture and the psychological factors associated with interpersonal relationships mediated through digital platforms; and b) the psychological factors that contribute to one's Korean Wave related purchase intention. The survey was conducted using an online questionnaire. Using a purposive sampling method, the core population of the survey consisted of Hallyu fans in Hungary, who were reached through various, Korean culture-specialised social media groups. Data from 495 eligible respondents was analysed using the PLS-SEM method with SMART PLS3 software. It can be concluded that fear of missing out (FOMO) and self-pressure to be member of fandom inspire presence in the online space, which can increase purchase intention towards K-goods, Results shows that the examined psychological elements have the greatest impact on two age groups (20-23 and 30-43 years old); however, due to its higher level of income and already established living circumstances the second group can respond to marketing activities to a greater extent. It has also been determined that the level of fandom involvement has a positive effect on purchase intention, something which can be further enhanced by FOMO and peer pressure. Based on the correlations identified, more effective marketing activities can be planned among fans through social media and influencers in fan groups.
The present research delves into the concept of celebrity co‐creation from the consumer behavior perspective. It explores the impact of the degree of a celebrity's involvement with a brand (celebrity as an endorser vs. celebrity as a co‐creator) on consumers' advertisement and brand‐based evaluations (Study 1) and purchase behavior (Study 2). The research subsequently incorporates the mediating effects of consumers' perceived risk (Study 3) and the moderating effect of celebrity expertise (Study 4) in the relationships. Three of the four studies were controlled experiments among nonstudent samples (combined n = 486), while one was a field study. Major findings indicate that a celebrity co‐creator is more effective than a celebrity endorser, but both cases of celebrity presence are more effective than the control (Studies 1 and 2). This effect is observed to be mediated by the consumers' perceived risk (Study 3) and moderated by the celebrity's expertise (Study 4). The present research provides a new direction to value co‐creation research from the communications perspective and adds to the literature on celebrity endorsements.
Háttér és célkitűzések: A környezetbarát termékekkel kapcsolatos marketingkommunikáció egyre nagyobb teret nyer a közösségi médiában. Előzetes kutatások igazolták, hogy míg az influenszer és az ajánlott termék összeillése pozitívan befolyásolja a meggyőzés sikerességét, a szponzorált tartalom feltüntetése negatív hatással van a meggyőzésre. Jelen tanulmány az influenszer-termék összeillés és a szponzorált tartalom feltüntetésének együttes hatását vizsgálja egy influenszer által posztolt környezettudatos tisztítószer ajánlásának eredményességére. Feltételeztük, hogy magas termék-influenszer összeillés esetén a szponzorált tartalom jelölése kevésbé negatívan fog hatni a termékajánlás eredményességére. Módszer: Hipotéziseink megválaszolásához egy 2 (kontroll versus környezettudatos profil) × 2 (kontroll versus figyelmeztetés szponzorált tartalomra) kontrollcsoportos online kísérletet hajtottunk végre. Résztvevőinket egy egyetemi kurzus keretében toboroztuk ( N = 430, M = 22,1 év, SD = 4,22 év). Az ingeranyagokat magunk állítottuk elő fiktív influenszer profilok és posztok létrehozásával. A hipotézisek tesztelését két szempontos varianciaanalízisekkel végeztük. Eredmények: Sem a reklám-, sem a márkaattitűdöt nem befolyásolta az összeillés és a szponzorált tartalom feltüntetésének együttes hatása, az első két hipotézisünket nem sikerült bizonyítanunk. A magas termék-influenszer összeillés azonban pozitívan befolyásolta a reklám- és márkaattitűdöket. A vásárlási szándékot illetően, a feltételezettekkel ellentétben a szponzorált tartalom feltüntetése a magas termék-influenszer összeillés poszt esetében volt negatívabb hatással a vásárlási szándékra. Következtetések: A magas termék-influenszer összeillés pozitív hatása a reklám- és márkaattitűdre összhangban van a szakirodalomban ismertetett eredményekkel. A vásárlási szándékkal kapcsolatos eredményeinket magyarázhatják a szponzorált poszt témája, a módszertani különbségek, illetve a poszt értékelése mögötti eltérő pszichológiai mechanizmusok. A jövőbeni vizsgálatoknál javasolt figyelembe venni az influenszer mögöttes szándékával kapcsolatos fogyasztói feltételezéseket.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, two important antiracist movements, namely, Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate, swept across the United States between 2020 and early 2021. Social media platforms such as Twitter have become an increasingly important tool for mobilizing social movements. To gain a comprehensive understanding of social media users’ attention and reactions to racial injustice during this unprecedented time, the current study explores and compares the discursive characteristics of Twitter discussions of these two movements: their volume changes, word diversities, and moral and emotional sentiments. By analyzing the text of approximately 5 million tweets from April 2020 to April 2021 using a dictionary-based word count method, this research showed that compared to #BlackLivesMatter, #StopAsianHate was less diverse, more morally charged, and less positive in emotional sentiment. Additionally, #StopAsianHate contained stronger moral emotions than #BlackLivesMatter. The study connects these distinct characteristics to the two movements’ differences in their objectives, progress and participants’ demographics and provides implications for effective antiracist activism on social media.
Sociologists recognize that symbolic boundaries may be activated and reinforced through the production and consumption of cultural objects. Less attention, however, has been paid to the role of advertising as an ascriptive boundary-making mechanism in the life cycles of objects. Using the case of the electric guitar, this study examines how a cultural object-pioneered and popularized by Black celebrity guitarists became homologous with White masculinity through the production and circulation of visual images featured in advertising materials. Data come from product catalogs circulated by the two preeminent electric guitar brands during the instrument’s large-scale production and consumption in the United States (1955–1982). I conduct a content analysis of annual product catalogs focusing on the proportional representation of visual images of Black and White celebrity guitarists. Findings indicate that Black celebrity guitarists were rarely featured in advertising materials despite their exclusive use of both brands’ instruments. Consistent with segregationist logics embedded in modern advertising, Black celebrity guitarists were rendered non-existent and replaced with images of White celebrity guitarists and depictions of middle-class White masculinity. I interpret my findings as evidence of the prevalence of segregationist era logics in the advertising and construction of the electric guitar as a racialized and gendered cultural object. I conclude by discussing how this study advances recent scholarship concerning racial inequities in the consumer marketplace and the significance of ascriptive boundaries in the production and consumption of cultural objects.
This article focuses on the influence of a group of Russian women collectively known as “the czarinas” on social media. This group of business-minded socialites began appearing on social media around 2012 and have turned their popularity on Twitter and Instagram into Internet-based business ventures that are centred around their perceived identities as wives, mothers, and fashion muses. Together, these women have served as an aspirational tableau for other Russian women trying to navigate their own roles of mothers and businesswomen. This article examines how these “czarinas” have constructed their perceived social media identities as wives and mothers to create a relationship with their followers that allows the czarinas to influence their purchasing decisions. Finally, it examines why these women have embraced social media, how they use it to promote their businesses, and how successfully they have navigated social issues created in both Russia and the West.
Celebrity endorsement has become a prevalent form of advertising in the United States. Despite extensive literature on the effects of celebrity endorsements on consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions, little is known about the economic value of these endorsements. Research on this topic has typically focused on theories explaining how celebrity endorsements influence consumers’ attitudes and intentions. The authors assess the impact of celebrity endorsement contracts on the expected profitability of a firm by using event study methodology. Their approach assumes that the announcement of a celebrity endorsement contract, usually widely publicized in the business press, is used as information by market analysts to evaluate the potential profitability of endorsement expenditures, thereby affecting the firm's expected return. Announcements of 110 celebrity endorsement contracts were analyzed. Results indicate that, on average, the impact of these announcements on stock returns is positive and suggest that celebrity endorsement contracts are generally viewed as a worthwhile investment in advertising.
Evaluative conditioning refers to changes in the liking of a stimulus that are due to the fact that the stimulus has been paired with other, positive or negative stimuli. Although evaluative conditioning appears to be subjected to certain boundary conditions, significant evaluative conditioning effects have been obtained using a large variety of stimuli and procedures. Some data suggest that evaluative conditioning can occur under conditions that do not support other forms of Pavlovian conditioning, and several models have been proposed to account for these differences. In the present article, the authors summarize the available literature, draw conclusions where possible, and provide suggestions for future research.
On March 9, 1995, rumors began to circulate on Wall Street concerning Michael Jordan's impending return to the Chicago Bulls. Jordan had previously retired from playing professional basketball in 1993 to play baseball. The results of this study show that anticipation of Jordan's return to the NBA, and the related increased visibility for him, resulted in an average increase in the market-adjusted values of his client firms of almost 2 percent, or more than $1 billion in stock market value.
Although a number of scholars have investigated effective celebrity endorser characteristics with consumer samples using experimental methods, there is only one study by Miciak and Shanklin (1994) that explored the point of view of practitioners who are responsible for the selection of celebrities. This paper investigates British advertising agency managers' consideration of important celebrity characteristics when selecting an endorser and these factors' importance according to product types. The research findings validate much of the consumer-based research in that managers consider a range of criteria when choosing celebrity endorsers and indicate that the importance of the criteria depends on the product type.
Consumers have knowledge about persuasion that includes naïve theories about persuasion. The present work examines naïve theories with regard to whether consumers associate the meaning of persuasion as something that is either good or bad. Furthermore, naïve theories about persuasion are demonstrated to affect how consumers respond to a persuasive message. Two studies are presented, one that manipulates and another that measures naïve theories related to the meaning of persuasion. The meaning associated with persuasion is found to play a significant role in influencing the amount of message elaboration that consumers engage in. Implications for attitude change and advertising, persuasion knowledge, and the importance for further research on the meanings attached to persuasion are discussed.
Use of celebrity endorsers has become a widely employed marketing communication strategy. One of the key issues of this strategy is to decide which celebrity to employ. Even though scholars, mostly US-based, have written about the celebrity endorsement strategy and effective endorser characteristics, so far no studies have explored how advertising agencies select celebrity endorsers. To discover the process by which advertising agencies select celebrities and factors considered during this process, semi-structured interviews were carried out. Findings indicate that there is an unwritten and informal process of selecting celebrity endorsers, in which there are a number of factors affecting decisions.
Previous research on advertising effectiveness of celebrity endorsers has applied immediate measures only and neglected delayed effects, although the literature suggests that endorser traits, such as attractiveness or expertise, trigger either cognitive or affective processes that do not necessarily occur immediately and simultaneously. In order to fill this research gap, this study applies the affective-cognitive framework and investigates immediate versus delayed effects of celebrity endorsers' attractiveness and expertise on attitude towards brands (as related to transformational products). The results show that attractiveness is the dominant driver in the immediate condition, whereas in the delayed condition a high expertise exerts its influence. High expertise is particularly effective when the celebrity endorser is highly attractive, whereas the impact of less attractive celebrity endorsers with low expertise can even worsen over time.
Celebrity endorsement is a salient executional strategy in China, where national celebrities often endorse more than 20 brands. This paper adopts a relational perspective to examine this research issue. The relational perspective is driven by three core Chinese cultural values: collectivism, risk aversion, and power distance. The authors propose a model that postulates how celebrity-worship leads to value transfer that, in turn, affects brand purchase intent. Findings from a survey involving 1,030 respondents from a national panel of consumers, showed that consumer celebrity worship is a significant antecedent to endorser effects; over-endorsement by a celebrity is an important moderator; and the model is robust across both sports and entertainment celebrities.
This research examined the impact of a widely publicized celebrity scandal on consumers’ attitudes toward the involved celebrities and the products they endorsed. Special attention is placed on the interplay between consumers’ perceptions of the celebrities’ responsibilities for the events that occurred, their affective reactions to both the events and the celebrities, and their consequent reactions to the products that the celebrities endorsed. The use of a real celebrity scandal permitted the effects of several variables to be identified that are normally not taken into account, including individuals’ a priori liking for the celebrities, perceptions of the scandal's impact on both the involved celebrities and the society, individuals’ own involvement in scandal‐related activities. These and other effects were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Two parallel analyses, one for each celebrity, fit the model well and provided insight into the processes that potentially mediate the effects of a celebrity scandal on product evaluations.
Over the years, the level of analytical rigor has risen in articles published in marketing academic journals. While, ceteris paribus, rigor is desirable, there is a growing sense that rigor has become a, if not the, goal for research in marketing. Consequently, other desirable characteristics, such as relevance, communicability, and simplicity, have been downplayed, to the detriment of the field of marketing. The authors explore this imbalance, setting forth the consequences of overemphasis on rigor for (1) the manuscript review process, (2) PhD programs, (3) hiring, and (4) the tenure and promotion review process. Two surveys of "successful" authors provide empirical support for the conjectures put forth. The authors then identify the causes for this trend and propose some directions to reestablish a better balance between rigor and relevance.
Two studies are presented that examine the role of attractiveness and expertise in the “match-up hypothesis.” Much “match-up hypothesis” research has focused on physical attractiveness. Study One examined physical attractiveness as a match-up factor and its impact on brand attitude, purchase intent and key brand beliefs. In a 2 × 2 experiment, endorser attractiveness and product type are manipulated. Results indicated a general “attractiveness effect” on brand attitude and purchase intent but not the match-up predicted in previous literature. Study Two considered expertise as the match-up dimension. The second experiment manipulated product and endorser type. A match-up effect was found as the athlete was most effective as an endorser for the energy bar in increasing brand attitude, but not purchase intent. The variable “fit,” or “belongingness,” was shown to play an important role in match-up effects.
Advertisers commonly use celebrity endorsers to increase the effectiveness of advertising in persuading consumers. In many cases, these celebrities endorse more than one brand. Little is known, however, about the benefit to brands from these multiple endorsements by the same celebrity. This research applies classical conditioning theory to an exploration of multiple brand endorsements by a single celebrity, and examines how brand concept consistency between endorsed brands affects consumers’ evaluations of the endorsed brand. The findings, over two separate studies, indicate that exact and high concept consistency between endorsed brands positively influences consumers’ attitude toward these brands.
Managers increasingly seek to develop brand loyalty through sponsorship activities, though this relationship has not been solidly established. This article models and demonstrates the impact of sponsorship on brand loyalty. The studied concepts and relationships emerge from both the sponsorship and consumer-brand relationship literature. The experimental design relies on before and after measurements and multiple exposures to the sponsorship. Thus this study demonstrates that sponsorship exposure has a positive impact on brand affect, brand trust, and brand loyalty. The change in brand loyalty from before to after sponsorship exposure reflects two persuasion processes. First, self-congruity with an event enhances brand loyalty through event and brand affect. Second, perceived fit between the event and the brand has a positive effect on brand affect, through attitude toward the sponsorship, and on brand trust, such that it ultimately influences brand loyalty. Brand affect is identified as an important mediator of sponsorship effects.
This article analyzes the relationship between two types of performances, one on the ground (of a tennis court) and the other on the floor (of the stock market). The empirical application looks into the tennis player, Rafael Nadal, and his endorsing firms. The findings show a positive reaction in the market value when the tennis player wins matches in the Grand Slams, the intriguing effect being the diminishing sensitivity pattern that such reaction shows and the absence of loss aversion.
The influence of celebrity spokespersons has largely been examined using source models from the communication literature that feature explicit persuasive messages. Alternatively, theorizing by McCracken (1989) offers a more comprehensive explanation based on meaning transfer. Our research elaborates McCracken's model by investigating a cognitive process underlying meaning transfer. Evaluative conditioning procedures are used as the tool to expose this process. To assess celebrity influence as it may operate in the marketplace, well-known brands and well-known celebrities are featured. The results support, at the individual level, McCracken's theoretical axiom concerning meaning transfer from celebrity affiliate to brand.
This paper investigates how the announcement of negative information about a celebrity endorser impacts firm value, as measured by abnormal stock returns. The unique data sample consists of 93 celebrity disgraces that occurred between 1986 and 2011, affecting firms listed on US stock exchanges. Some evidence is documented of negative and statistically significant abnormal returns around these events. Returns tend to be lower when the disgrace attracts much media attention, or when the celebrity itself is prominent. No significant returns are observed when a firm decides to terminate its endorsement contract with the disgraced celebrity. Congruent relationships between endorser and brand are less likely to be terminated, as well as endorsement contracts with prominent celebrities. The announcement day return itself appears to play no role in the firm’s decision whether to terminate or not.
Complex phenomena such as advertising are difficult to understand. As a result, extensive and repeated testing of diverse alternative reasonable hypotheses is necessary in order to increase knowledge about advertising. Laboratory and field experiments, as well as quasi-experimental studies, are needed. Fortunately, much useful empirical research of this kind has already been conducted on how to create persuasive advertisements. A literature review, conducted over 16 years, summarized knowledge from 687 sources that covered more than 3,000 studies (Armstrong 2010 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230285804 https://a.co/d/hqxj4Ij). The review led to 195 principles (condition-action statements) for advertising. We were unable to find any of them in a convenience sample of nine advertising textbooks. The textbooks tended to ignore evidence on persuasion. Of the more than 6,500 sources referenced in these textbooks, only 24 overlapped with the 687 used to develop the principles. By using the evidence-based principles, practitioners may be able to increase the persuasiveness of advertisements. Relevant evidence-based papers have been published at the rate of 20 per year from 2000 to 2010. The rate of knowledge accumulation could be increased if journal editors invited papers with evidence-based research findings.
Stealth marketing techniques are being driven by a growing criticism of the advertising industry, and are based on the premise that word of mouth and peer group recommendation are the most effective promotional and marketing tools.This article discusses stealth marketing methods used by companies to reach consumers without their motives being obvious. The authors feel that brand managers need to consider the strengths and weaknesses of stealth marketing and traditional marketing before they decide on either.
Consumer psychology faces serious issues of internal and external relevance. Most of these issues originate in seven fundamental problems with the way consumer psychologists plan and conduct their research—problems that could be called “the seven sins of consumer psychology.” These seven “sins” are (1) a narrow conception of the scope of consumer behavior research; (2) adoption of a narrow set of theoretical lenses; (3) adherence to a narrow epistemology of consumer research; (4) an almost exclusive emphasis on psychological processes as opposed to psychological content; (5) a strong tendency to overgeneralize from finite empirical results, both as authors and as reviewers; (6) a predisposition to design studies based on methodological convenience rather than on substantive considerations; and (7) a pervasive confusion between “theories of studies” and studies of theories. Addressing these problems (“atoning for these sins”) would greatly enhance the relevance of the field. However, this may require a substantial rebalancing of the field’s incentives to reward actual research impact rather than sheer number of publications in major journals.
Celebrity endorsement is a common influence tactic used by marketers. By linking their brands with cultural entities such as celebrity endorsers, marketers attempt to acquire positive meanings and personality traits associated with the entity. Entities, however, often have both positive and negative associations. For example, a celebrity can be both smart and arrogant, or sexy and ditsy. We highlight a risk of meaning transfer: negative associations are more likely to transfer to a brand than positive associations. Three studies show that brands are more likely to acquire the negative than the positive personality traits associated with a celebrity endorser and that negative associations transfer even under conditions that inhibit the transfer of positive associations.
This research explores how an advertising agency selects a celebrity endorser. The study was conducted in two phases: in-depth interviews that helped the researchers have a greater understanding of the underlying process and a survey mailed to advertising agencies to better examine the steps of the model and test various hypotheses. A normative model of celebrity endorser selection was proposed as a guide for academics and practitioners alike. The model potentially can be useful at each step of the celebrity-endorser selection process.
This research involves a comparative study conducted in the United States and Japan to investigate whether the form of negative information about a celebrity (other- or self-oriented) results in differential evaluations of the brand endorsed by the celebrity. Surprisingly, we find that both Japanese and Americans view endorsed products more positively in the presence of self-oriented negative information, a possible suspension of the famous fundamental attribution error in human judgment. Implications for advertising practitioners are discussed.
This article reports on a survey and an experimental study that were conducted to determine the extent to which public information about celebrity endorsers influences consumers' attitudes and perceptions, and whether this was moderated by an individual difference factor, consumer skepticism. Participants in the survey were more likely to recall and discuss negative events involving male sports celebrities; thought that these negative events had little or no effect on their perceptions of brands or companies associated with embattled celebrities; and focused discussion on the case of Kobe Bryant, when they were asked to discuss a specific case of a controversy involving a celebrity endorser. The experimental study revealed significant main and interaction effects of nature of information about a celebrity and consumer skepticism. It revealed that consumer skepticism has its greatest impact when information is neutral. The experimental study established that advertisers have to take into account the level of consumer skepticism when they use celebrities in their advertisements to target different groups of consumers.
This research introduces attitude towards the endorsement as a mediating variable in the relationships between celebrity source and endorsement factors and brand attitude. It also includes perceived celebrity motive, a variable rarely studied in the previous literature, as an endorsement factor. In a survey study, respondents evaluated four celebrity endorsement campaigns. Mediation analyses show that attitude towards the endorsement mediates the effects of three variables on brand attitude; these variables are celebrity expertise, celebrityÀbrand fit, and perceived celebrity motive. Moreover, results show that if consumers perceive that the celebrity was motivated to do the endorsement not only by money but also by product quality, this has a significant positive effect on attitude towards the brand.
Nowadays celebrity endorsement has become a popular marketing technique in the non-profit sector. However, there is still a degree of light and shade as regards the determinants of the effectiveness of this communication strategy. Taking into account the significant lack of studies in this particular field, the current research presents a causal model with nine hypotheses, which analyse the sequence of relationships that cover from the background of celebrity credibility, to the determinants of the attitude towards adverts and the intention to collaborate. We surveyed 329 adults, who rated a fictitious ad with a celebrity without perceived experience in the non-profit area. As a result, it is observed that the celebrity's credibility depends on the fit perceived, the attribution of altruistic motivation, the celebrity image and the general attitude towards celebrity activism. Furthermore, it is found that a credible celebrity has a strong influence on the attitude towards the advert and, indirectly, on behavioural intentions.
This study provides a quantitative summary of the relationship between celebrity endorser source effects and effectiveness in advertising. The Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test is used to identify the most influential celebrity endorser source effects on effectiveness. The role of celebrity/product fit, interaction effects, sample type, study setting, and country of study are also included as moderators. Results suggest negative celebrity information can be extremely detrimental to an advertising campaign. The source credibility model' composed of celebrity trustworthiness, celebrity expertise, and celebrity attractiveness appears to capture the three most influential source effects on purchase intentions, brand attitudes and attitudes towards the advertisement.
This experimental study examined what is the optimal decision for a company whose brand is endorsed by a celebrity immersed in a scandal (revoking versus continuing the endorsement) as a function of brand/endorser fit (congruence versus incongruence) and of the veracity of the negative event created by the celebrity's reaction (denying versus admitting the facts). In the case of congruence, revoking the endorsement is suboptimal with respect to brand attitude and purchase intention. Furthermore, denying lowered the endorser's trustworthiness which, in turn, hampered attitude and intention. Managerial and theoretical implications, as well as directions for further research, were also considered.
This paper presents the results of a content analysis study that examined the use of celebrity endorsers in magazine advertising. Advertisements appearing in 37 different magazines representing eight major classification categories were analysed to gain insight into the prevalence of use of celebrity endorsers in magazine advertising. Only 10% of the magazine ads run during the time period analysed contained a celebrity, which is much lower than estimates of their use often reported in the media. The findings show that the use of celebrities varies by magazine type with their use being highest for sports and teen publications. The use of celebrities also varies by product/service category as does the type of celebrity utilised, such as athletes, actors/actresses, entertainers and supermodels. Celebrity use was based primarily on the source characteristics of popularity/likeability followed by physical attractiveness. Celebrity use based on expertise occurs primarily for athletic products.
What is the pay-off to enlisting celebrity endorsers? Although effects on stock returns are relatively well documented, little is known about any impact on sales arguably a metric of more direct importance to advertising practitioners. This study of athlete endorsements finds there is a positive pay-off to a firm's decision to sign an endorser, and that endorsements are associated with increasing sales in an absolute sense and relative to competing brands. Furthermore, sales and stock returns jump noticeably with each major achievement by the athlete. However, whereas stock-return effects are relatively constant, sales effects exhibit decreasing returns over time. Implications for practitioners are outlined.
This article is a commentary on the theme of the 2012 ICORIA Conference held in Stockholm, which was about The changing role of advertising'. We propose that the role of advertising has not changed. The role of advertising has always been, and will continue to be, to sell more of the branded product or service or to achieve a higher price that consumers are willing to pay than would obtain in the absence of advertising. What has changed in recent years is the notable worsening of the academic practitioner divide, which has seen academic advertising researchers pursuing increasingly unrealistic laboratory studies, textbook writers continuing to ignore practitioners' research appearing in trade publications and practitioner-oriented journals, and practitioners peeling off into high-sounding but meaningless jargon. Also evident is the tendency to regard the new electronic media as requiring a new model of how advertising communicates and persuades, which, as the authors' textbooks explain, is sheer nonsense and contrary to the goal of integrated marketing. We provide in this article a translation of practitioners' jargon into more scientifically acceptable terminology as well as a classification of the new advertising formats in terms of traditional analogs with mainstream media advertising.
Recent studies have revealed that a celebrity's endorsement of a product or service positively influenced the purchase intention of the consumer. Such findings have created a necessity to identify the specific characteristics of celebrities that most positively influence an advertiser's target audience. This study offers an innovative model for selecting celebrities that will most effectively endorse a specific product. By implementing adaptive conjoint analysis and genetic algorithms in the advertising process, advertisers will newly approach the method of matching product and celebrity from the perspective of product design.
An attribution is an inference about why an event occurred or about a person's disposition or other psychological state. This study is designed to examine the effects of consumers’ attribution styles (i.e., dispositional and situational) and moderating role of celebrity identification and brand commitment in the evaluation of negative information about a celebrity endorser. The study finds that people who make dispositional attributions judge the endorsed brand more negatively than do those who make situational attributions. The findings also suggest that consumers with a higher level of identification with the celebrity are less likely to react negatively to the bad publicity. Finally, the study found that, when faced with a celebrity scandal, people with high brand commitment showed more favorable attitudes toward the brand as well as higher purchase intention than those with low brand commitment.
Using celebrity endorsers can be an effective way to influence brand perceptions and elevate the brand. However, although there is a significant amount of research investigating how endorsers influence brand perceptions, there is little research showing whether traits associated with the brand influence perceptions of the endorser. This article addresses this under-researched area and provides evidence for brand trait transference. Brand trait transference occurs when a trait transfers from a brand to people associated with that brand. Three studies demonstrate brand trait transference and identify a boundary condition for this novel effect. The article discusses the implications of these findings for effective marketing communications as well as the theoretical implications for the growing research on branding, association transfer, and endorsers.
Two studies address how companies should react when celebrity endorsers with whom they wish to associate are blameless or blameworthy for causing negative events (e.g., accidents). Research findings on stigmas suggest a linear endorser blame-company evaluation relationship, such that companies should associate (disassociate) with endorsers who have low (high) levels of blame for negative events. In contrast, research findings on defensive distortions suggest a nonmonotonic blame-evaluation relationship: Owing to the tendency to downgrade low blame persons so that they seem deserving of bad fate, companies benefit from associating with moderate, rather than low or high, blame celebrities. The current research suggests that the stage of the company-endorser relationship influences the pattern of findings and the type of endorser decisions companies should make. In Study 1 (n=121), consistent with stigma research, companies fared better when dismissing existing endorsers with high blame and keeping those with low blame. In Study 2 (n=108), consistent with research on defensive distortions, when making decisions about potential endorsers, companies fared best when hiring low blame candidates and worst when rejecting moderate blame candidates.
This study represents a supportive test of the attractiveness aspect of the “match-up” hypothesis of celebrity/product congruence discussed in depth by Kahle and Homer (1985). The hypothesis implies that the physical attractiveness of a celebrity endorser may only enhance both product- and ad-based evaluations if the product's characteristics “match-up” with the image conveyed by the celebrity. Empirically, it was found that for an attractiveness-related product, use of a physically attractive celebrity (Tom Selleck) was observed to significantly enhance measures of spokesperson credibility and attitude toward an ad, relative to use of a physically unattractive celebrity (Telly Savalas). Alternatively, the physically attractive celebrity was found to have no effect on various spokesperson-, product-and ad-based dependent measures relative to the physically unattractive celebrity for an attractiveness-unrelated product. Implications of these findings for advertising strategy are discussed, and directions for future research are outlined.
The use of celebrity endorsers is a popular executional device, but it is not without risk. The authors report three studies examining how negative information about a celebrity can affect the brand the celebrity endorses. Using an associative network model of memory as a theoretical framework, they considered four moderating variables: the size of the association set for the brand, the size of the association set for the celebrity, the timing of the negative celebrity information, and the strength of the associative link between the brand and the celebrity. In the first two studies, they used a fictitious but realistic celebrity endorser and in the third they used an actual celebrity. Negative information about a celebrity resulted in a decline in attitude toward the endorsed brand only for the fictitious celebrity. That general relationship was moderated in varying degrees by association set size, timing of the negative information, and the strength of the link between brand and celebrity.
The authors assess the extant research in the area of celebrity endorsement and point out the need for continuing research in celebrity marketing. Suggestions for future research are made in a wide breadth of areas, spanning from celebrity endorsements to novel areas of celebrity branding. The authors propose three celebrity-branding strategies and discuss the factors that may influence their effectiveness. Other areas for future research in celebrity marketing that are discussed include ethical marketing to vulnerable consumers and social marketing. The authors conclude with suggestions regarding theories and methods that can be used for future research in celebrity marketing.
Despite the popularity of social media in general and Twitter specifically, little
empirical research exists to assist marketers in how to successfully connect with
consumers in these environments. The purpose of this study was to identify the ways in
which brands can connect with consumers through Twitter and to examine how the
category of Tweet impacts brand engagement. Findings reveal that whereas celebrity
Tweets may be successful at capturing attention and disseminating brand information,
they have minimal impact on changing brand opinions. What influence celebrities do
have may be best served with unfamiliar brands rather than familiar ones – results
suggest that not unlike in traditional offline media, in social media celebrities may be
influential in drawing attention to unfamiliar brands. Our results also suggest that
companies with established familiar brands should be cautious about paying to seed
their own Tweets using Twitter’s ‘Promoted by’ option, particularly if the brand is one
that consumers have a neutral opinion of, as this can lower consumers’ opinion of the
brand. Instead, these companies should encourage consumers to follow them on Twitter
as this will enable the brand to interact directly with consumers.
This study validates Rossiter and Percy's (1987) hook theory of presenter characteristics, for celebrity presenters. Firstly, by employing a product-alone control group, the study demonstrates that some celebrity-product pairings have a good fit and can persuade whereas others have no effect or represent such an obviously poor fit that they dissuade consumers from buying the product. Secondly, the study suggests that good fit, and thus persuasion, for celebrity presenters, depends on the audience immediately perceiving that the celebrity is an expert user of the product (for all products) and is a positive role model (for high-risk products). On the other hand, the study reveals that failure of any of four of the celebrity's characteristics causes dissuasion by celebrity presenters; these failures include lack of high visibility (i.e., not widely well-known), perceived inexpertness as a user of the product (a strong negative hook that is probably the reason for the poor fit perception), lack of trust (though this is a weak dissuasive factor for celebrities) and, paradoxically, the celebrity being too likable (for low-risk products). Thirdly, the hook(s) conceptualization of presenter characteristics is superior to the conventional linear conceptualization in that a hook-scored regression model accounted for the same amount of variance in persuasion–dissuasion as did the linear model (adjusted R2s of 41% vs. 43%) despite the hook model's handicap of at least one-third lower possible R2 due to trichotomization of 7-point ratings into positive, neutral, and negative hooks.
This paper studies the economic effects of endorsements. In the publishing sector, endorsements from the Oprah Winfrey Book Club are found to be a business stealing form of advertising that raises title level sales without increasing the market size. The endorsements decrease aggregate adult fiction sales; likely as a result of the endorsed books being more difficult than those that otherwise would have been purchased. Economically meaningful sales increases are also found for non-endorsed titles by endorsed authors. These spillover demand estimates demonstrate a broad range of benefits from advertising for firms operating in a multiproduct brand setting.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
This paper investigates the effects of source congruence on brand attitudes in two situations: multiple brand endorsements by one celebrity and multiple celebrity endorsers of one brand. Under low involvement conditions, brand attitudes become more negative as a celebrity endorses multiple brands and more favorable with multiple endorsers. In high involvement conditions, strong source congruence overrides the negative effect of multiple brands, and the positive effect of multiple endorsers is found only with strong congruence. We interpret these results as suggestive of a frequency knowledge cue that dominates under low involvement but is non-diagnostic in high involvement scenarios.
In a new test of the process of forgetting, the authors found that subjects, at the time of exposure, discounted material from “untrustworthy” sources. In time, however, the subjects tended to disassociate the content and the source with the result that the original scepticism faded and the “untrustworthy” material was accepted. Lies, in fact, seemed to be remembered better than truths.
A study of reactions to a novel product attributed the invention to either an expert or a novice. Comprehension of the product description was manipulated by varying information exposure time (Study 1) and contextual prior knowledge (Study 2). As predicted by the heuristic-systematic model, comprehensibility moderated the persuasive impact of source expertise. When comprehension was low, subjects relied on the inventor's expertise in forming their attitudes toward the product, but when comprehension and, hence, systematic processing were higher, source expertise had no impact on subjects' attitudes. In a pilot study, however, subjects attributed comprehensibility to the source and derogated incomprehensible communications.
As sponsorship spending continues to increase worldwide, research indicates that a brand or company perceived as “congruent” with the event or cause it sponsors will enjoy more favorable consumer reactions than will a sponsor deemed “incongruent.” However, by conceptualizing perceived congruence as an inherent, static property and by exposing individuals to only one sponsorship message, much research in this domain remains limited. The current experiment demonstrated that perceived congruence is a malleable property that can be positively influenced by repeated exposure to sponsorship messages, a rather common marketing communications strategy. Further, for a sponsor initially deemed incongruent, perceived congruence mediated the positive effects of repeated exposure on other brand evaluations. Findings inform both scholars and practitioners that sponsorship affiliations—and the potential successes thereof—should not be viewed as dichotomous, all-or-none scenarios. By increasing perceived congruence, repeated exposure to sponsorship messages can alleviate some of the risks typically assumed to exist for brands initially deemed low in fit.